Minny505

Adrianza is a solid bench middle infielder. In 2018, he would have been an upgrade on the bench for the following AL playoff teams: *Yankees *Red Sox *Indians * maybe the Athletics (depends on what you think of Chad Pinder as an infielder) That's 3.5 of the 5 playoff teams in the AL. He's a better bench MI than what the teams the Twins are looking up to have (that's such horrible sentence structure). Sure, we could go the route of the Red Sox or Yankees and throw $4mil to $6mil at the BMI position, but that doesn't mean you get a better player. And during stretches where he has gotten regular playing time he has trended up to a roughly .700 OPS. For a team with a $125mil payroll, paying $8mil for a BMI is not feasible. Even the teams with $200mil+ payrolls don't pay that much for a BMI.

Jose Iglesias finished the 2018 season with a wRC+ of 90, two points better than the entirety of Twins 2B for the season. He's averaged a fWAR of 2.1 and bWAR of 1.7 over the past three seasons. I'm more on the Iglesias bandwagon than anyone else on this list. If the Twins lose out on him (the only reason they would is he is not the top option on their board), Lowrie seems the next best option, as he brings a far better glove to the party than any of the bats guys listed above at 2B. This would give the Twins two average-ish defenders up the middle that each flash a wRC+ roughly 15% above average. Either solution seems workable. The Twins finished 6th in runs scored in the AL in 2018 and 9th in wOBA. The success of the offense will hinge on Sano, Rosario, Polanco and Buxton, not so much on the production of a new middle infielder...unless that middle infielder is Manny Machado of course.

I'd keep Grossman around, but I'm not strongly opinionated on it. They may trade one of Kepler/Cave and if they dump Grossman as well the team will have to sign a Gomez or Span type to a 4th OF spot. Grossman may be a better option and use the remainder of Kepler/Cave to man CF when needed. I also think people underestimate the value Kepler has as a CF. I think the FO could get a strong package for him from a team that needs a CF. He's above average on defense and his bat plays fine there. He's probably a 3+ win player over a full season in CF. He's worth half that in the corner. His value is kind of wasted on this Twins team.

This is the funniest comment I've ever read on Twins Daily. This is getting printed and pinned on my office wall. Thank you so very much!!!

I'm curious why the TD crowd thinks Machado is so unrealistic. Sure, the Phillies seem like the obvious fit and they have more payroll space than us so I'd say it's a slam dunk. But if they decide they want to focus on Harper and pitching, who else has the need and dollars? Due to having their SS/3B needs filled, the Dodgers, Yankees, Astros and Nats are likely out. They have other needs that are a priority. The Red Sox are so far past the highest luxury tax line that they can't even see it. The Cubs may be in play, but the rumor is that they are going hard at Harper. The Cardinals might make a move for him as they basically have the same backstory as the Twins when it comes to signing someone of his caliber. I don't see any other team really wanting him. After that you're getting into speculation on teams like the Blue Jays, Mariners or Mets, none of which seems likely. The market for Machado from the top market teams just isn't there this offseason. This isn't the Harper market. The Twins, Phillies, Cubs and Cards are the only teams likely to be bidding on Machado in any meaningful way (caveat, Yanks trade Andujar, which seems less likely than the Twins signing Machado). Yes, the Phillies are the leader in the clubhouse with a bullet, but I'd take even money on the Twins vs the other 28 teams at this point. I feel like if we weren't jaded Ryan/Smith Twins fans we would see the Twins as a viable landing spot. Am I missing something?

If the Twins pick up an outside pitcher, it needs to be Gibson level or better, as stated earlier. The team has enough guys capable of producing at a level below that. On the free agent market, there are quite a few names: Corbin, Keuchel, Happ, Morton and maybe even Eovaldi could be reasonable. The trade route seems like a better bet. We have a farm system a team going into rebuild mode would love. Those teams are usually going for volume these days in trades. If the Mariners go into rebuild mode, Gonzalez might be on the table, as well as Leake on a two year contract and for very reasonable package of prospects. Plus, DiPoto seems pretty easy to trade with. If the Pirates do the same, Taillon or Musgrove may be made available. And of course, the Mets should go rebuild and offering a package for any one of their three studs would be expensive, but every competitive team in the league will be at their door. Unless we trade away one of our top three prospects (which we shouldn't), I don't think they pick us.

My thought on it is that by giving him opportunities the team is hoping that he can do something good here in the next few weeks to get something for him in an August trade. If this continues into September, he probably sits for the majority of those games. I hope I'm right.

I still think it's a bummer that we celebrate the third black player to play in the majors and neither of the first two. Not saying that we shouldn't celebrate Robinson and dropping the 63 year ban that kicked the first two black players out of the league, it's celebration worthy for sure. I just think it appropriate to celebrate a Walker Brothers day as well. It might give us better perspective and appreciation from where we were and the progress we've made. I believe May 1st was Moses's debut. That would give us two days to celebrate.

I can't find a way to sort by spin rate leaders (the statcast and savant websites are pretty terrible), but on a statcast podcast last year petriello mentioned Busenitz having the second highest spinning fastball of any reliever who threw 100 fastballs. The outliers at the top and bottom of the spin rate list (according to petriello) generally have fantastic outcomes. The names he was surrounded by are basically the who's who of best relief pitchers in the game and petriello adamantly suggested he will be the future closer for the Twins. I hope he makes this squad as he is one of the five best RH relief pitchers the organization has right now.

Here I thought the 'two-two' was for stage plays and the guy on your slow pitch softball team who strikes out. Appropriate that it is now making its way into Twins team culture.